Tag: summer

Hello August!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized14 Comments

Hello August!

July was a rough ride – I am hoping that August will be a better month. Wyatt is doing better everyday now, and is back to his normal self, at least every way but physically. We go for his next recheck at the end of the month. The last recheck went very well so I am hopeful the next one will be even better.

The weather so far this August, that one whole full day that we had, was cool and wonderful. No humidity, lower temps. I could tell that autumn is hiding around the corner waiting its turn, with cool breezes allowing me to open the windows most of the day. This morning it was actually cold when I stepped outside, and I did a little dance in the doorway. I would much rather be cold than hot. I am hoping to get outside and enjoy some cold temps this evening, with a cup of tea outside. I love to sit outside at night alone, just listening to the quiet, with the occasional train whistle or boat horn making themselves known.

We had a girls night at my friend Kelly’s the other night and the weather was the same, reminding me of northern Michigan, and nights near a fire, lakeside. It has been way too long since my family has done that and we need to fix that next year. I may not be a daytime beach person, but I am definitely a nighttime beach person.

I was so relaxed at Kelly’s. I would lean back and stare at the sky, listening to my friends talking, feeling calm and safe, their laughter wrapping itself around me. We also spent time fawning over Kelly’s newest addition, Simon. Simon is a sweet little fellow with the most beautiful green eyes. He just showed up one day two weeks ago, hungry and looking for a safe place to land. A few years ago I named Kelly’s house Belle Refuge, a place of beautiful refuge, for she takes in all strays and nurtures them and loves them. Simon is the newest to the bunch, and he recently was neutered and given all of his shots, courtesy of Kelly. Now he comes and goes, living life on her sofas inside and out, and we got to meet him finally last night. He was unprepared for a gaggle of cat lovers as we all vied for his attention. I felt chosen because I got a little cat chirp out of him as he came towards my outstretched hand. He is sweet and adorable and a polydactyl with big old paws. He was definitely soaking up all of the attention.

I am not planning much for August. I want it to play out as it will for the most part. I do have some things on tap though, like Wyatt’s Grand Opening for his Little Free Library, and Billy’s summer work party, Billy’s 50th birthday on Monday, and Mermaid Girl’s 10th birthday later this month.

Usually August we spend soaking up the last of summer, but this year it feels as if we are just starting summer as we enjoy the last of it. We have some of the best of summer ahead of us – and Rebecca over at The Farm Wife Reads has gotten me me very excited to eat more of summer’s bounty. Tomatoes and zucchini, cucumbers, corn, peaches, blueberries, cantaloupe, and of course watermelon. I could eat all the watermelon and cantaloupe, I just love it. I don’t have a garden this year, so I will have to head out to some local farmer’s markets and farm stands to stock up. Isn’t this the time of year for summer sweet corn?

So we are planning on taking it easy this month. Seeing friends, having some backyard dinners on the deck, getting back to the library, taking walks, going on drives and car picnics. Sunsets, iced matcha lattes, daydreaming, reading. It’ll be a nice way to end this crazy summer.

And that is it from me today. I hope that whatever you do today you do something that makes you smile!

Books That Feel Like a Heat Wave

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized5 Comments

Ugh! This weather! We are on day 3 of a 4 day heat wave here in Michigan, and I know we are not the only ones experiencing high temps! I am a fall/winter girlie so I am NOT enjoying this to say the least. The weather here is hot, humid, swampy, oppressive, downright disrespectful, if you will.

I pulled together a list of a few books that feel like a heat wave, in case you want to match the weather outside. These temps call for more than a light summer read!

Desperation || Lonesome Dove || Holes

Desperation: Desert heat, scary horrible creatures, and a gang of thrown together heroes battling an ancient evil. This is probably one of my top fave King books.

Lonesome Dove: More desert, minus the … gore? It still has its moments. Just imagine wandering the desert in all that gear. Bleh. One of the best books ever though.

Holes: This book is on my mind a lot right now, as it is a book Wyatt and I are reading next year for school. But dang, is it hot out there. Poor Stanley.

The Ruins || Jaws || The Sunlit Man

The Ruins: Jungle heat, humidity, swampy, bugs and plants and horror. So good!

Jaws: I don’t think this one needs an explanation. However, this book makes you think twice about swimming in the ocean to beat the heat!

The Sunlit Man: My husband suggested this one so I don’t know anything about it! However, Billy understood the assignment, as the description reads “Fleeing the fires of a sunrise that melts the very stones…” Yep, that is pretty hot.

Good Girls Die Last || The Summer that Melted Everything

Good Girls Die Last: This book is all feminist rage during a London heatwave. Em is just going through some shit, pardon my French, and is fed up.

The Summer That Melted Everything: I can’t describe this any better than this blurb.. “Fielding Bliss has never forgotten the summer of 1984: the year a heatwave scorched the small town of Breathed, Ohio. The year he became friends with the devil.”

A Streetcar Named Desire || The Great Gatsby

A Streetcar Named Desire: Literally the first book that popped into my head when I was thinking about this post. New Orleans in the hot summer is something to be experienced y’all!

The Great Gatsby: Another book that was an instant add to my list.

Stay cool and hydrated my friends!

Hello June!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized16 Comments

Hello everyone!!

Today is sunny and bright, and our deck has plenty of shade, and a brand new grill. We have strawberries in the refrigerator, and ice cream in the freezer. It is definitely getting to be summer here, bit by bit.

So the big thing of our summer – Wyatt’s surgery. Wyatt is having double hip surgery July 9, along with tendon lengthening at the same time. I can feel it hovering over us, as I try to make this June as fun as I can for him. The recovery for it is supposed to be very intense, and he will need to be basically in bed for a month, with a wedge between his legs 24/7. I am extremely nervous about next month, but I keep telling myself what the surgeon told me, that this is short term pain for long term gain. I am just going to have to grit my teeth and push through, and help my son get through this time as easily as I can.

We are trying to pack as much as we can into June for him. I had him make a bucket list for the summer, with a few things we can do during recovery, like ice cream for dinner, but most of them are things we need to do either this month or the end of August. He wants to go see the movie How to Train Your Dragon, have a car picnic, where we drive somewhere and then have a picnic in the back of the Subaru, ride the train at Greenfield Village again (hopefully without barfing this time!), and see the dragon exhibit at the zoo. He has a few others on there too, which I am hoping we can accomplish!

We also have his yearly EEG this week. On Wednesday we head up to the hospital for 24-48 hours, where he will be all hooked up with wires. I am packing his tablet and books and drawing supplies, and hoping we get the go ahead to leave on Thursday morning. I am also taking a book and my headphones for myself, for when he goes to bed that night. TV in the hospital is always the worst! Lol.

This month is RicStar Music Camp too! A million thank yous to Jeanie at Marmalade Gypsy who told me to look into this camp for Wyatt, it has been a blessing and we can’t wait to go back this year. We are starting to feel like we are part of the RicStar family now, as this will be our third year in attendance. We are looking forward to seeing everyone again! I am hoping to get to the Children’s Garden this year after camp lets out for the day. I have said that for two years now, so fingers crossed!

And then we have a birthday party for a friend and fellow scout of Wyatt’s, and our beginning of summer Scout party, where the kids will be able to play and enjoy some pizza and ice cream and I will award them their pins that they earned this year. They have all done so well and I am so happy with how Scouts has turned out for all the kids. They are a little community now and that is what I wanted, for the kids and parents to have fun in scouts together, and to form relationships. I have made new friends and so has Wyatt, and the other mothers and kids are hanging out as well, and it just makes my heart so full. It is everything I hoped for when forming this pack. We have a few other things on the calendar as well, like getting together with my brother Devin and Chrissy and Mermaid Girl and Hurricane whenever we can. I am trying to pack it all in guys!

I have also been planning like a maniac. I have the first four months of our history curriculum planned, and one read aloud for history so far. I am in the process of choosing our language arts books, and think I have a rough list to work from. I am thinking: Secret of the Andes, Bud Not Buddy, Because of Winn Dixie and either Call it Courage or Heart of a Samurai. I would love to hear thoughts on these choices! I have a whole other list for history, but I am solid on two right now, By the Great Horn Spoon, and Rascal. I also want one for the Oregon Trail and one about Harriet Tubman or the Underground Railroad, so any suggestion would be welcomed!

I have also planned out the entire next year for scouts, or at least what we are doing each month. It’s going to be a fun year!

This month is going to be a whirlwind, and I hopefully have lots of iced lattes in my future to keep me going!

And that is where I am at today. How are you?

I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!

10 on the 10th – Summer Memories!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized19 Comments

10 on the 10th is hosted by Marsha from Marsha in the Middle!

Summer. I am not a super fan of summer. If you have visited me before, you probably know that since I say it way too much. I just really don’t like being hot and can be a little bit of a grump about it. However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t have lots of special memories of summer because there have been some fun and wonderful moments that have taken place in the summertime. I may not actually get to ten because I am going to clump things all together.

I’m going to be honest, I would still wear this outfit.

Proposal:

Billy proposed to me in the summertime! It was a summer night and we were at the park and there was a band in the park playing (not for us but in general lol) and they were playing Kiss the Girl from Little Mermaid at the time.

Childhood Memories:

All the good nostalgic 1980s summertime things. Swimming in pools, eating soggy sandwiches and chips after, running through sprinklers and playing frozen tag with the neighbor kids. Riding our bikes to the library, reading in cool air-conditioned rooms. Watching The Monkees reruns with my cousin Brian and playing in his clubhouse that now would be considered a tiny house and he could probably rent it out.

The Street Fair:

It is timely that this post takes place during the week of our annual street fair. I have gone almost every single year of my life, with my mom and dad, with friends, with Billy, with Wyatt, and for many years I even worked 12 hour days the week of street fair at the job I had while I was in college. I have always loved it. The music coming at you from all directions and different areas, the smell of the fried food, the streets filled with booths crammed with art. The past few years I have been going twice – once with Wyatt in the morning as everyone is just starting for the day, and once with Billy for a date night. I can’t wait to do that again this year, although it will be a little more tricky as the weather is supposed to be stormy this week due to Beryl!

This is from Wyatt’s first street fair! Look how tiny. We were still at home here, and I was getting him ready to go. It feels like yesterday!

All those summer vacations…

When I was a kid, we used to go away for my grandmother’s birthday every July, my whole family. I have such good memories of playing in the pool with my cousins and hoarding my game room quarters like a baby dragon. And of course, going up north is a huge thing for Michiganders in the summer! I have so many memories of that as well through the years, again as a child with my family, with Billy as I got older, with my family again after Wyatt was born. Our family trip to the tiny house on the farm a few years ago was very special as well.

Look at little Wyatt and little Mermaid Girl. My heart!

Those teenage years:

One summer in particular stands out. I was maybe just 15 or 16, and I was hanging out with two friends I didn’t really hang out with too often. And then all of a sudden were hanging out all the time at night for some reason. Things are weird as a teen. One of them would borrow his dad’s convertible Mustang and we would drive around all over, the top down and listen to music. Once it was so hot we went swimming at night, floating around the pool watching the bats fly overhead. I only hung out with them for a maybe a month but it was memorable just for that. Although maybe I am still confused about it. Lol.

Billy and I also started dating in the summertime. We saw Jurassic Park in the theater when it first came out (yeppp) as our first date!

We also took many trips to Cedar Point. We would all pile into cars, multiple cars, and would make the road trip to the amusement park where we would spend the day, a huge group of us. I remember when The Raptor first opened at the park, and we got on it. Billy literally saved my life. My seat/shoulder doodad did not lock, and I was swinging it up and yelling to the ride worker who either did not see or hear me and we were in motion. Now this ride immediately starts out wild and keeps going, flipping upside down. Billy told me to sit back, and whammed the safety bar down so hard that it finally locked. I couldn’t breathe maybe but I didn’t fall out!

The Zoo:

We love going to the zoo! We would always go to the night out at the zoo events, which were adult only before we had Wyatt, and they were so fun. They were inexpensive too, and they sold adult beverages and food and you could stroll around the zoo during the twilight hours. It was so cool. The animals were all out and we had so much fun. After Wyatt, it was our first date night out after he was born! I remember we left him with my mom, stepdad, and aunt and uncle and I was super nervous the whole night. We also would do their Bike Safari nights, where people could ride their bikes around the zoo. Unfortunately, like everything, the price for this event skyrocketed so we no longer go but it was fun while we did. Then last year we went to Dream Night at the Zoo, which was for special needs children and their families. We had a blast!

As I sit here and think back, there are just so many memories. Time certainly flies doesn’t it? So many summer trips, day trips to Greenfield Village, peach picking, blueberry picking. Camping. The county fair filled with the sounds of the auctioneer, the cows mooing, the pigs, the goats. The smell of barnyard mixed with fried food. Just lazy days and lazy nights around the house or in the yard. My cousin Michael’s Fourth of July parties. For someone who doesn’t really like summer, I certainly have many many wonderful memories from summers past.

Hello July!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn hygge11 Comments

“Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the tree house; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape…”
― Harper Lee

Summer should be whimsy. Summer should be about these small things that stick with you forever, and feel like those endless lazy days, filled with what you love, surrounded by all the life and color that summer brings. Listening to the songs of crickets on hot nights, watching the fireflies perform their flickering dance in the twilight, the sweetness of a strawberry straight from the garden… these are summertime thoughts. I was watching the YouTuber Desi last night, and she talked about how we all have glimmers, which are small little things that make us happy, that give us joys, that glimmer in our soul. The sound of a storm rolling in with the distant thunder booming, picnics in the park with my family spread out on our blankets with books in the shade of the trees, butterflies flitting here and there in my yard, landing on the flowers I have planted for them. The scent of my lavender, the buzzing of the bees, watermelon, walking barefoot, taking Wyatt on his bike rides. Summer road trips and northern Michigan. Planting sunflower seeds and watching how tall they grow. Iced cold tea, that has been brewed by the sun.

I try to make sure that Wyatt has all these experiences that will become his glimmers. I try to expose him to the world, to nature, to different places and people and things and sights. I know some things that he loves, like seeing and hearing a blue jay call outside, riding his bike, drawing with sidewalk chalk, playing in his little play house while I garden around him, picking peaches, going to the library, spotting the moon, playing with his cousin Mermaid Girl around a backyard fire, swimming in his grandma’s pool.

One summer when I was a little kid, my mom and dad set up a giant tent one year in our yard. I loved taking my books and notebooks and pencils out there and just spending hours in there reading and writing and drawing, like my own little hideaway. I am actually going to have Billy put one up today in our yard, so that Wyatt and I can hang out in there reading and playing games and drawing, building new memories for Wyatt while I live out old ones.

I often wonder about what will stick with Wyatt as he grows older, become a core memory, those memories that are forever memories; will it be our moon parties we have with his cousin? Those nights around the fire? Watching our butterflies emerge from chrysalis and the tadpoles turn to frogs? Ice cream dinners or movie nights at home with popcorn his dad made?

Desi also made something I thought was sort of cool – a summertime mood board, filled with these glimmers. So I made mine. It is sort of neat and wild to think about how these small things that fill people up, these little shimmery glimmers, will be different for everyone. As soon as I post this, I am off to the other room where my husband is drinking his coffee and Wyatt is watching cartoons, to ask Billy what are his small things of summer that make him smile.

What about you? Any you want to share?

(And If you make a mood board and want to share, let me know! I am so curious and intrigued!)

Kindergarten Graduation, Oceans, and Mermaids

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn homeschooling9 Comments

These two wild and crazy kindergartners graduated last week! Next year, first grade! We had a small little family gathering, pizza, cake, and gifts for these hard workers. They have learned and grown so much this past year! In addition to their normal curriculum, we have studied over 28 animals, five different plants, three countries, one state, had a Nordic Christmas, and learned about some fascinating people, like Edgar Allen Poe, Jane Goodall, and Martin Luther King Jr. I also made these little memory books and t-shirts for the kids.

But this doesn’t mean our learning is over! Homeschooling, the summer edition, has commenced. We finished up our oceans study with a fun day devoted to mermaids!

We started with some blue hair. The kids were excited, even though Wyatt looks sort of not happy in this photo. Lol. My mom and I added some to our hair too, but you couldn’t see it in mine unfortunately. My niece decided we were all different types of mermaids – I was a moon mermaid, Wyatt a river mermaid, Dino Girl was an arctic mermaid, and my mom a lake mermaid. I think these were perfect choices for us.

Once we were ready for the sea with our blue hair, we switched on Luca, and started with our art project. It was extremely messy but very fun, and I love the way they turned out!

One little mermaid got so covered in paint that he had to borrow his mermaid cousin’s clothing until the paint dried on his own. (She had spare clothes at my mom’s house where we were – apparently I did not think of this) It was worth all the mess though, I think they look so cool! It was actually pretty easy too. I cut out a free template that I printed out of a mermaid and taped it to watercolor paper. Then the kids used finger paint to swirl the paint like water over the entire thing. We used five different shades of blue and green! Once the paintings dried almost to completion I peeled the mermaid template off. I didn’t want the paint completely dry since I had to cover up the area where the tape was, and I used the still sort of wet paint to fill in those blank spots. Next time I will roll the tape and put it underneath. You can see where the kids were overzealous and got paint under the mermaid template, but I think that is ok. It keeps them unique! I also had picked up some ocean art kits from Michael’s Craft store and let the kids play with those while they just created and watched the movie.

We finished up our mermaid celebration with mermaid floats and story time! Just lemonade, sparkling flavored water, and a little rainbow sherbet to make these magical drinks! (the recipe is from The Fairy Food Cookbook – I just changed the name from Rainbow Float to Mermaid) The kids absolutely loved them. They loved the whole day really! It was a great time, and a fun way to end our unit on the ocean!

What a great way to start summer! Next month is all about Italy and I can’t wait.

Hello July!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized8 Comments

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July, you are not my favorite month. I am not a fan of being hot and sticky and sweaty and Michigan summers are hot and sweaty and humid. Our family tends to shy away from the sunlight like vampires, hiding out in the air conditioning during the day, and then emerging in the evening as it cools off. None of us are summer lovers, in this house. But July, you have your own beauty and charm, and this year, I will embrace you more. You are a month of sunshine, and bright colors and flowers. Insects and birds are cheerily going about their business, flowers riot through gardens. There is a plethora of fresh fruits and vegetables at the farm markets, bursting with flavor, and more bright colors. That is probably my favorite thing about you July, your vibrancy.

This month is a busy one too. We have so many fun things planned, in our own ways, of course. The fourth of July and family picnics. The lavender festival, the Detroit Kite Festival on Belle Isle. Bastille Day, watching the Tour de France together. Music concerts at the zoo. And three whole date nights for Billy and I, three weeks in a row! A dinner and tiki bar with new friends, a party with old coworkers, and then finally a date night at the zoo actually. I also see many more family dinners – my brother and I are trying to make them as weekly as possible. Iced tea parties with my boy once a week as well. Fresh salads, fresh fruits, simple easy meals. Trips to the library always feel so summery to me too.

As for me, I am going to a mom’s retreat in Texas at the end of the month, just my stepsister and I. I have to admit, I am super nervous. Beyond nervous and anxious. I have never been away from Wyatt more than 8 hours and now I will be gone for three nights. But I am doing it. I am teaching Wyatt to not let fear rule his life, and that begins with me. I have to do things that maybe I am scared to do, to show him that it is ok. I am also excited to go as well. I have always wanted to go to Texas, my whole life, and now I am. There is a chance to see some of my old college friends who moved to Austin as well, which would be a great big bonus. And this is a retreat for moms of kids with special needs like my kiddo, and the event coordinators have so many activities planned if we want to do them – or we can do whatever we want. Two and half days where I can do whatever I choose. So, this is going to be fun. I will get to hang out with my stepsister too, and really get to know her better, as we met when we were older. I am looking forward to that. It is a chance for me to grow, and it is good to push ourselves to that growth. Or that is what I keep telling myself!

I think this month too, I will revisit old children’s classic books, and just books that I loved as a child. I am also doing the Paris in July challenge, so that is on my mind too, all the fun reads and things I can for that. It has also been one year since I decided to start phasing out plastic, with Plastic Free July, and I signed up for a challenge for that as well, to keep me motivated and give me some new ideas. I need a push to get on that again, and the challenge will do well for that!

How about you all? Any big plans for July?

Hello June!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn family, family friendly, Uncategorized9 Comments

Wow, how is it June already? It seems like the year is flying by!

June is the month of the Strawberry Moon, and I am so excited to begin this month! This month I think we want to really soak up the month, as I am not sure where April and May went to so fast!

Summer begins in June, and it always brings to mind that freedom and joy felt when you are a child, and the whole summer is stretched out before you like a blank canvas. Mornings of sleeping in, lazy days reading under a tree, chasing fireflies and playing tag, trips to the cool library on those really hot days, visits to the zoo and beaches and walks through shady woods. Peeking under rocks for bugs and just laying back in the grass, staring up at the clouds. Playing with friends and cousins and backyard cookouts and pool play dates. Summertime feels like freedom, and we lose that feeling so much as an adult, with all of our responsibilities of work, whether it is a work out of the home job or stay at home. But if there is one thing I have learned in the past few months, it is that time is short. We all only have so many summers and while we do have to take care of lives, and can’t live with the utter carefreeness of a child all of the time, we can incorporate some of that spirit into our everyday. Stop and take half an hour or an hour on a busy day to just be. To enjoy and savor your life. Make days just for playtime and family and fun days out. Try and make the most of these days. The other day my husband came home from work and although it was dinner time and we had lots of things we could have and should have been doing, instead we hopped in the car, stopped at a bakery for pizza rolls, and headed off to the marsh for a sunset. A spur of the moment dinner picnic. It was good for the soul.

This summer, we are planning on many trips to the library, little morning hikes, and lots of evening front porch sitting. We are enjoying gardening and the farmer’s markets that are popping up, and we are looking forward to many backyard bbqs and fires, chilled white wine, iced lavendar coffee, and of course, lots and lots of ice cream! Mint chocolate chip for Wyatt and Billy, chocolate for me. Wyatt also started adaptive swimming lessons which are fun, he loves being in the water. He also really loves to splash! I think the two of us are going to the zoo, and to a few farms around here together, and we are planning on going strawberry picking with my brother and his family, including Wyatt’s cousin L. But we are also seeking out just those quiet moments too, sitting in the grass on a blanket surrounded by books and cookies and lemonade. Iced tea parties and poetry. Lounging about in our pajamas on a lazy morning, eating pancakes and listening to music. (My son loves Down by the Bay and will sing along, quite loudly…) Dancing around the house to Prince and Van Morrison and Tom Petty and Eric Church. Spontaneous trips for ice cream for dinner.

We had our first outdoor evening, soaking up the beautiful weather, warm and breezy, at my brother’s house the other night and it was perfect. Birds singing their evening song, burger and hot dogs, chips, cold beers, and bubbles for the kids to play with. I am looking forward to many more this summer!

What do you love about summer? Do you have any favorite memories from when you were a kid?

The Day of the Bear

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn family, mom life, Uncategorized2 Comments

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It is raining today, and I am sitting here drinking my coffee. My little is at preschool after a bit of a tearful drop off this morning. It was hard to leave, when his little face was all screwed up in a sad face, swallowed up by his yellow duck raincoat. But I kissed his cheek and headed to my car, missing him too.

There is something about rain, right? That makes us more sentimental? Or is that just me? This past summer, Wyatt and I got up and were getting ready for our day, eating breakfast and reading books about bears. This kid loves bears. I was sipping my coffee, looking out the clear blue sky, talking and reading with him as he drank his milk and sort of ate his breakfast.  I thought about the beautiful blue sky outside, and how the days was supposed to be mild, only in the 70s. And I thought, it’s a great day for the zoo! I asked Wyatt if he wanted to go see a bear, right now, today, and he of course told me yes, in the way that he has. He doesn’t say yes, or shake his head yes, but he puts his hand up to his head and moves his hand forward, like he is going to shake his head. When he was a baby, and with his gross motor disabililty, we were showing him how to shake his head, by putting our hands gently on him and showing him how to do it. His takeaway was that you use your hand to manually do it. We know what he is saying though. And I want to add, he says the word no, verbally and very clearly…lol.

So, I left him to finish breakfast and began rushing about the house to get our stuff ready for a day at the zoo with a three year old. All the important stuff went into a backpack, I loaded his stroller and him into the car, and off we went, into the wild blue and green day. The weather was perfect, the music was playing, and then..fifteen minutes from the zoo, the sky opened up and it just started pouring down rain. I had thoughts of Noah and his ark as I headed down the highway. It wasn’t supposed to rain! The forecast never said rain. I called my husband and had him check the weather for me – and he reported that there was seriously one lone rain cloud over where the area I was. And the zoo. He also told me that he thought it would blow over quickly. I decided to keep going. We had decided we were going to see a bear, and we were going to see those bears, rain be damned!

I arrive to a mostly empty zoo, most sane people staying in out of the rain I guess. I headed in to the gift shop and bought a poncho for Wyatt and an umbrella for me. Neither worked out for us. The poncho was too big, and came too close to his face for my liking, and I couldn’t manage to push the stroller and hold the umbrella. But still, we were not giving in. I put the hood up on the stroller to keep him as dry as I could, tucked the poncho around his legs, and kept going, getting wetter and wetter with each step.

And of course, zoos are designed with the Big Attraction animals at the back, to make people walk through the whole thing. I don’t know if that is purposeful, but it seems like it to me. And the Detroit Zoo has an extraordinarily long walk into the actual zoo. So we basically had to walk all the way to the back of the zoo. We took random breaks under trees (it wasn’t storming, just downpouring) and stopped to look at other animals, if there was a shelter for us. But for the most part, we persevered. Wyatt thought it was a blast, honestly. I was soaking wet, and he was wet but we made it to the bears.

And it was awesome. We were the only ones there, just standing there in the rain, looking at the bears. One of the bears was sleeping in the sheltering cave feature, but the other was hanging out in the rain. He had been relaxing, maybe enjoying the cool rain for a bit, and when we arrived, he looked up at us. And there we were, the three of us, in a downpour, all looking at each other. It was a moment that I feel I will remember forever. Wyatt and I looked at each other, smiling, then back at the bear, who kept his steady brown gaze on us. Maybe he thought we were nuts. Maybe he wanted us to go away, as he had been enjoying the solitude, although we were not talking or making any noise. It was sort of..pure. Powerful. It was so quiet, just the sound of the rain pattering away on the umbrella and the trees. There was no attempt to grab a photo, especially with my arms full of preschooler and an umbrella. Nothing to distract from the moment.

We stood there a little bit, not too long, but long enough. Eventually Wyatt went back into his stroller, all tucked up, eating his goldfish which somehow he could eat without them getting soggy, and we slogged back to the car. But it felt different now. At least for me. I felt more carefree and less upset about the rain. I guess though once you are wet enough, who cares? I wonder if the morning would have been the same had I had our raincoats. I kind of think it wouldn’t have been.

Now when it rains, I think about the bear, and standing in the rain with my son, all alone, looking at a bear who was looking back at us.

Mini-Post: Feeling Peachy!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Detroit, family, family friendly, food, garden, Michigan, Uncategorized5 Comments

peach 1

“We are going on an adventure!”

This is what I tell Wyatt every time we leave the house, even if it is just to head up to the store. You never know what the day will bring! Sunday started out dreary and overcast for the third day in a row but we were not letting a little gray sky darken our day. I had a surprise up my sleeve! As I piled the car up with picnic type foods and rain coats, my husband was a bit confused, but he is game for anything so just kind of shrugged before taking the wheel and heading south.

I navigated our family to a favorite spot of ours, Erie Orchards, an orchard my family has been going to since I was a little girl, probably around Wyatt’s age. It was peach picking time! We picked up our bag from the adorable weather-beaten barn store, and rolled our Jeep on over a few dirt roads back to where the peach trees grew.

We could see people over in the blueberry patch, but we weren’t here for blueberries. We had the peaches all to ourselves. And Wyatt had a blast! Some of the trees were small enough for him to stand under and reach the peaches right off the branch, which he thought was the best thing ever! He happily snapped them off and deposited them into our bag.

 

Look at that look of concentration, and he even said peach for the first time!!

We had a wondeful adventure on a day that looked like it was going to be a bummer. The sky was heavy with clouds, which made the day cooler, and their was virtually no humidity. Add a small cool breeze and it was actually pretty perfect.

You just never know where a day will take you.

And now we have 8 lbs of peaches to use. A small thing though for such a fun day!

Anyone have any good peach recipes to share with me?